Introduction

Grassroots democracy is one of the four pillars of the global Green movement. In the Green Party of Minnesota, the party local is the place where grassroots democracy really happens. A "local" is a Green Party organization, rooted in a particular community, where Greens can come together face-to-face on a regular basis to work collectively to advance Green values and principles. Active locals are truly the lifeblood of the Green Party, and they are one of things that distinguish the Greens from the older parties.

This manual is designed to help you to establish and grow your local. To find out if there is already an established local in your area, please visit the Green Party of Minnesota Web site at mngreens.org, or call the Green Party of Minnesota office at 651-288-2820.

Section 1: GPMN CC Policy for Forming New Local Green Parties:

Establishing a Green Party Local

Local party units provide the primary arena for grassroots participation in the Green Party of Minnesota. Local party units may be established and recognized for the following purposes:

• To engage in local electoral politics, education, activism, and other activities that further the Green vision as defined by the principles and values of the global Green movement.

• To foster grassroots participation in the Green Party of Minnesota.

• To endorse candidates for elected and non-elected office within the local's geographic community.

To become a recognized affiliate of the Green Party of Minnesota, a local must:

• Have written by-laws that guarantee democratic decision-making.

• Have elected officers.

• Be of a sufficiently small geographic scope to allow regular and active participation by the local's membership.

If you are interested in starting a local Green Party in your area you can contact the Green Party of Minnesota office at 612-871-4585 or the Locals Committee contact, Patty Skogrand, at 952-431-7113 and skogrand@frontiernet.net or lc@mngreens.org. Please let whomever you speak to know that you are interested in starting the process for forming a local Green Party in your area, or leave a message stating that. The GPMN Locals Committee is charged with the responsibility of guiding and helping new local Green Parties as they form.

Section 2: STEPS IN FORMING A NEW LOCAL GREEN PARTY

This outline of steps for becoming a local Green Party is to help you visualize and organize what will need to happen for you to form a Green Party local. Once you have gotten in contact with the GPMN Locals Committee, someone from that committee will be available to you as a resource for advice and to help you through all of these steps.

1. Finding and building a strong foundation called a Core Group:
   1. For a local to start you need to have at least 4-5 people who are really committed to working on this for a year or so.
      1. The Green Party of MN Locals Committee can help you find these other people.
2. This Core Group should spend some time getting to know one another
   1. I suggest meeting with this group for coffee and discussion every week or every other week for a few months to get to know each other.
   2. This is the group you will be working with. You will need to have a good working relationship with them before major work or decisions need to be made so that inevitable personality differences will already have been worked through and won't cause stress.
3. Your core group should work up a set of bylaws for your local
   1. Bylaws contain things like: mission statements, who will make decisions and how they will be made, how often will elections for leaders be held, etc. Bylaws make it possible for your local to endure membership changes.
   2. It can take some time to figure out what your bylaws should look like for your group.
   3. There are two different sets of bylaws available for your group to use as examples. They are fill in the blank examples and can be used as is or changed to meet the needs of your particular local group.
   4. It is also helpful to look at the bylaws of a few other locals to see what others have done. (See the samples below.)
4. Once you have created, voted on, and passed your bylaws (they should spell out how elections are to happen), then you should elect your chair, treasurer and whatever other leadership roles your bylaws spell out.
5. After your elections you will submit a copy of your bylaws and the names of your leadership to the Green Party of MN Coordinating Committee with a letter requesting official recognition of your local Green party from the GPMN Coordinating Committee.
6. The final step is to fill out paperwork for the Campaign Finance Board of the State of MN.
   1. The State of MN has regulations and keeps track of local political party units.
   2. You will need to have opened a bank account in your locals name prior to registering with Campaign Finance Board.
   3. You will need a letter of recognition from the Green Party of Minnesota.

Section 3: GPMN CC Policy for Forming new Local Green Parties:

What the Locals Committee can do for You

The GPMN Locals Committee will facilitate the formation of new local Green Parties. Facilitating the development of a new local will include but is not limited to:

1. Contacting the GPMN member or members who have expressed interest in forming a GPMN local GP or CD unit GP.
2. Discussing with those members the GPMN CC policies regarding purposes and requirements of local Green Parties or CD Green Party units.
3. Discussing with those members what they envision their new local GP to be or become, and how that vision meshes (or doesn't mesh) with the GPMN CC policy regarding GPMN locals. Work with those members to understand what is required to comply with GPMN CC policy regarding local Ps.
4. Provide assistance with gaining access to names and contact info of GPMN members within their desired geographical area.
5. Provide training as needed to those founding members on Green procedures such as consensus seeking decision making, conducting votes by IRV, and other voting methods or Green procedures that may be unfamiliar to them.
6. Provide assistance to them in contacting the GPMN members who live in their proposed geographic area.
7. The Locals Committee shall continue to be in touch on a regular basis (we recommend weekly) during the time it takes to complete the requirements for that local to be recognized by the GPMN CC.
8. A member of the Locals Committee or a GPMN CC member should if possible attend their first organizing meeting and their first official meeting after becoming a recognized GPMN local.
9. Provide information to those locals that intend to raise or spend funds on how to comply with MN Campaign Finance Board requirements.
10. The Locals Committee shall continue to be in touch with all existing locals on a regular basis (we recommend monthly) to provide help or information as to where they can get help with the ongoing struggles of building a local such as growing membership, fundraising, issue organizing, electoral campaigns, etc.

Section 4: Registering Your Local with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board (CFB)

Why Register?

• Green party units who choose not to raise or spend money are not required to register.
• Minnesota law requires party units that register within two weeks of either raising or spending $100.
• Green Party locals who are registered with the CFB are able to take advantage of Minnesota Political Contribution Refund (PCR) program.
  • PCR allows your contributors who donate $50.00 to be reimbursed $50.00 by the state of MN. For couples it can be $100.00.
  • Your local gives the contributor an official receipt and a PCR form. The contributor fills out the form and sends it with the receipt into the state of MN and in a few weeks they get a check from the state of MN for their $50.00.
  • Official PCR receipts and forms are available for free from the MN CFB.
  • More info here and here

How do we register our new local Green Party with the CFB?

To register you will need to fill out a form titled: Registration and Statement of Organization Political Committee or Political Fund

The form is available online at http://www.cfboard.state.mn.us/forms/pacreg.pdf or call CFB

Gather this information together you will need it to fill out the form:

• Name of the committee or fund.
• The name of your local must include the words Green Party
• The name should also describe the legal or political boundary, geographic area your local wishes to serve.
• Name, address and other contact info for the treasurer and chair of your GP local.
• Name of the bank or other financial institution with which the committee or fund is depositing contributions or making expenditures.

Your local will have had to establish a bank or checking account in the name of your local Green Party. Call the bank your local wishes to use to ask about how to go about this.

Send the form and a copy of the letter from the GPMN CC recognizing your local to MN CFB. The CFB will assign your local a registration number.

Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board
190 Centennial Office Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, Minnesota 55155-1603

Phone: 651-296-5148 or 800-657-3889

Other valuable information regarding MN campaign finance rules is available online as well at http://www.cfboard.state.mn.us/. It is a good idea to take a look at what information is available there. A helpful guide is the Political Party handbook published online by the CFB of MN. It is a big help to local GP treasurers: CFB Handbook. Another treasure for treasurers is the Campaign Finance Reporter, this is the software offered free from the CFB that helps treasurers track the things that they need to be tracking. Get it here

Section 5: Membership lists

Membership

Once you are a recognized local Green Party, there will be a number of ways in which the GPMN can help you to grow your membership.

• You can fill out a database sharing agreement with the GPMN and then you will be able to request the names of all of the Green Party of MN members who live within the stated geographic area of your local Green Party.

• The Green Party of MN will list your local GP contact and meeting information in the locals area on the mngreens.org Web site.

• The Green Party of MN is willing to host a Web site for your local:

You will need to find someone to create it and update it; the GPMN cannot at this time help with the creation of local Green Party Web sites.

• The Green Party of MN Web site, www.mngreens.org, will have issue event ideas available in the locals area of the Web site so that your local can plan similar events in your area.

• The Green Party of MN Web site will have downloadable brochures, posters and flyers that your local can download and use for tabling and events.

What to do with your GPMN member list:

Requesting an updated Green Party of MN member list for your local area at least once a year, or more often, is one key to growing your membership. Below are listed a number of ideas for what to do with these lists. You will have to decide which of these ideas your local will try.

• Call each member on the list, introduce yourself, let them know that there is a local Green Party in their area, let them know when and where your meetings are held. Also start to build a rapport with each member by asking them what issues they feel their local Green Party should be working on and ask them if they would like to help your local get working on those issues.

• Start an email list where updates about your local meetings and other green events can be emailed out to your list once a week or so to keep members informed about what your local is accomplishing even if those members do not attend the events or meetings.

Section 6: Hold Regular Meetings

To become sustainable and to accomplish the goal that your local Green Party sets for itself your local Green Party will have to have regular planning meetings. It is recommended that local GPs meet at least once a month. You will want to find a location that does not charge a fee for the use of their meeting rooms. Possible locations to try are public libraries, church basements, and church meeting rooms.

If possible try to find a location where you can meet at the same day and time each month, so that you can publish this day, time and location in local papers or on informational cards that you can hand out to interested persons, and you could then also have that time and date listed on the mngreens.org Web site and your own Web site if you have one.

Consensus Decision making at GP meetings

The Green Party encourages the use of consensus decision-making process at all levels of the Green Party. It is recommended that your local use a consensus decision-making process at your meetings. In a consensus process, the group strives for decisions that can command the broadest possible support, rather than moving quickly to a simple majority vote. Consensus seeking encourages inclusive decision-making in which all voices are heard. Most Green Party locals, as well as the state party, do not use a "pure" consensus process. Instead, they seek consensus, while still allowing for a formal vote where disagreements persist.

Here is a flowchart that shows the consensus seeking process:

You can use this and other materials to become more familiar with consensus decision making. You may also want to request that the GPMN provide a consensus training session for your local.

Section 7: Growing your local Green Party

Once your GP local is up and running you will want to see it grow to a point where it is self-sustaining.

A self-sustaining local is one where there are enough active members who feel connected to and a belonging in the organization and will work to see it continue, so that in case the chair or any other officer cannot fulfill their term that there are others ready to fill in and take on those responsibilities.

The process of growing into a sustainable local starts with finding ways to involve members in activities through which they can make a tangible difference in your community. Each of your members will have in mind which issues are most important to them. Work with that tendency to involve those members. You might want to encourage them to take charge of planning and educational forum regarding that issue, or for them to head up a subcommittee whose focus would be that issue.

Although most political parties generally focus on the aspects of elected office, so-called 'electoral politics,' Greens believe that this alone will not achieve the kind of change necessary to make the world a more peaceful and just place. Greens often divide the work of social change into three focus areas: electoral politics, education, and direct action.

Education: Educational Issue Forums

Members of your local GP are likely to have issues that they are called to work on. One way is to hold an Issue forum to help educate the people in your area about a certain issue. Issue forums are also a way for your locals Green Party to connect with other organizations in your area that are working on similar issues, for example, MN Universal Health Care Coalition, Fair Vote MN etc.

Here is one possible outline for planning an issue forum.

Step 1. Have it on your agenda for your local regular planning meeting to take suggestions from your members as to what issue you will be working on. After all the suggestions have been brought to the floor, allow time so that the pros and cons of having an issue forum on that topic can be discussed. Have your local try to come to consensus on one issue or if there is not consensus have a vote.

Step 2. Have the members who feel called to work on that issue do a little research to find an organization working on that issue that would be willing to send out a speaker to speak on your chosen topic. The locals area of the mngreens Web site will have some names of some organizations for some of the topics.

Step 3. Call a local library or other place with a meeting room to check their available dates, and also call the organization you hope to work with to find out the availability of their speakers. Plan a date and time that works for both your location and your speaker.

Step 4. Get the word out.

1. Utilize your GPMN member list. Either call, email or send an invitation to all GPMN members in your area, or if you have the time do all three.
2. Send an email to the editor of your local newspaper, for they usually have a community calendar on which they will post your event for free then make a follow up call to ask the editor to put it in their community calendar or ask if they will do a story about your event.
3. Send an email to the editor of any alternative local newspapers to ask if they will write about it.
4. Put posters or post cards up at local establishments that have a bulletin board and allow the public to put up notices.
5. Email the info to webmaster@mngreens.org to have that volunteer team post it to the GPMN Web site and have your Web person put it up on your local Web site.

Direct Action: Direct action can take many forms. Here is a short list:

Write letters to the editor

Participate in or plan a peace vigil

Table at a local event

Participate in or plan a protest

Electoral Politics: Electoral politics at the local level.

County: Your county will have a number of opportunities for citizens to get involved, either by running for elected office or other advisory boards that citizens apply to be on. You will want to take a look at your county's Web site to find out all of the possible elected and appointed boards and committees. Below are just a few of the possibilities:

• Commissioners
• Soil and water conservation district
• Citizen advisory committees

Cities:Your city will likely have city council members and a mayor, which would be elected positions. Your city may have citizen advisory committees as well, which may be elected or appointed. Your members might choose to apply or run to sit on those boards. You will want to go to your city's Web site to find out about all of the possible opportunities for your members, as citizens, to get involved.

Keep informed about ordinances and other rules that your city or county are proposing, and bring this information to your regular Green Party local meeting. Decide as a group by consensus what your local Green Party thinks about this ordinance or other rule and weigh in, let your city council members or county commissioners know the Green stance on that ordinance or issue.

Section 8: Fundraising

There will be a more comprehensive fundraising guide coming either as a separate document or to be added to this section, but here is the short guide on fundraising for now.

The easiest and main way that recognized Green Party locals who are registered with the MN Campaign Finance Board is to utilize the Minnesota's Political Contribution Refund (PCR) program which is discussed in section 4 of this document. Here is that information again.

• Green Party locals who are registered with the CFB are able to take advantage of Minnesota's Political Contribution Refund (PCR) program.
  • PCR allows your contributors who donate $50.00 to be reimbursed $50.00 by the State of MN. For couples it can be $100.00.
  • Your local gives the contributor an official receipt and a PCR form, the contributor fills out the form and sends it with the receipt into the State of MN and in a few weeks they get a check from the State of MN for their $50.00.
  • Official PCR receipts and forms are available for free from the MN CFB.
  • More info at http://www.cfboard.state.mn.us/PubSub.htm

You will definitely want to ask your core group of leaders to donate their free $50.00 through PCR. You might also want to ask those same people if they are willing to give just a little bit more even though they will only be reimbursed for the first $50.00.

You might want to write up a fundraising letter, with specific goals and what you will do if you raise x amount of dollars. Your letter should also spell out how they will get their first $50.00 back through the MN PCR program.

Next you would then send that letter to the GPMN members on your list and follow up with a phone call to talk with them about your goals and what you will do if you raise the money. Also make sure that you mention to them that they can get their first $50.00 back from the state of MN through PCR and that they will receive a check from the state of MN in 2-3 weeks after they send in the official receipt to the state of MN.

Of course your local's treasurer needs to know how to send the contributor the official PCR receipt and instructions for how the contributor will then send that receipt and a PCR form into the State of MN to receive their $50.00 back.

Other ways of fundraising are:

• Put on an ice cream social
• Put on a cultural event
• Put on some other food event
• Sell some item around the holiday season
• Do a garage sale

Conclusion:

Building a strong sustainable local Green Party will take some time and effort. The first few years of a local Green Party are sometimes tough and growth is sometimes slow. You will want to keep in touch with the GPMN locals committee during this time for advice and help in the many areas of growing a local. The locals committee is dedicated to finding the answers you need and helping your local succeed.

Strong and vibrant local activism through local Green Party units is the way that the Green Party will lead us into the future.